This invention relates to a musical education instrument and, more particularly, to an electric tutor, a musical instrument with built-in electric tutor, a method for guiding the fingering on a musical instrument and an information storage medium for storing a computer program representative of the method.
It is said that beginners hardly make progress in musical instruments by themselves. The beginner must learn how to read a musical score and practice the fingering in accordance with a series of notes on the musical score. In order to assist the beginner in the practice, electric tutors have been developed for a musical instrument such as, for example, a keyboard musical instrument. A typical example of the electric tutor for a keyboard musical instrument has optical indicators such as an array of light emitting diodes located in proximity to the black/white keys, respectively, and sequentially illuminates the optical indicators. The trainee fingers on the keyboard under the guidance of the electric tutor. Thus, the electric tutor offers the guidance by optically indicating the black/white keys to be depressed.
Following problems are encountered in the prior art electric tutors. Although the optical indicators are provided in proximity to the black/white keys, the trainee needs to repeatedly search the array of optical indicators to see what key is to be depressed during the practice. The trainee concentrates the attention to the array of optical indicators. This means that the trainee tends to divert the attention from the fingers on the keyboard. The practice without the attention to the fingers on the keyboard is not desirable. Thus, the prior art electric tutors are less desirable.
When the trainee finds the light radiated from an optical indicator during the search, he or she starts to depress the black/white key indicated by the optical indicator. A time lug is unavoidably introduced between the notice of the optical indication and the fingering. Thus, the prior art electric tutor teaches the trainee what keys are to be depressed, but can not exactly teach the timing to depress the keys.
It is therefore an important object of the present invention to provide an electric tutor, which directly indicates manipulators to be activated.
It is also an important object of the present invention to provide a musical instrument, a built-in electric tutor of which directly indicates manipulators to be activated.
It is another important object of the present invention to provide a method used in the electric tutor.
It is yet another important object of the present invention to provide an information storage medium, which stores a program representative of the method.
To accomplish the object, the present invention proposes to give a previous notice and an inductive action to a black/white key to be depressed.
In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electric tutor associated with a musical instrument having plural manipulators for guiding a trainee in a practice on the plural manipulators, and the electric tutor comprises a memory for storing pieces of music data information representative of a performance, a data processor selectively fetching the pieces of music data information and generating a piece of control data information representative of one of the plural manipulators to be manipulated in the practice and another piece of control data information representative of a timing to manipulate the aforesaid one of the plural manipulators and a driver including plural driving units respectively associated with the plural manipulators and responsive to the piece of control data information and the aforesaid another piece of control data information so as to manipulate the aforesaid one of the plural manipulators at the timing to the extent not to generate a sound.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a musical instrument comprising plural manipulators used for specifying an attribute of tones, a tone generating means responsive to the plural manipulators for generating the tones and an electric tutor including a memory for storing pieces of music data information representative of a performance, a data processor selectively fetching the pieces of music data information and generating a piece of control data information representative of one of the plural manipulators to be manipulated in the practice and another piece of control data information representative of a timing to manipulate the one of aforesaid plural manipulators and a driver including plural driving units respectively associated with the plural manipulators and responsive to the piece of control data information and the aforesaid another piece of control data information so as to manipulate the aforesaid one of the plural manipulators at the timing to the extent not to generate the tone.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for guiding a trainee in a practice on plural manipulator incorporated in a musical instrument comprising the steps of a) determining one of the plural manipulators to be manipulated and a timing to manipulate the aforesaid one of the plural manipulators, b) waiting for the timing and c) manipulating the aforesaid one of the plural manipulators at the timing to the extent not to generate a tone.
In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an information storage medium for storing a program representative of a method for guiding a trainee in a practice on plural manipulator incorporated in a musical instrument, and the method comprises the steps of a) determining one of the plural manipulators to be manipulated and a timing to manipulate the aforesaid one of the plural manipulators, b) waiting for the timing and c) manipulating the aforesaid one of the plural manipulators at the timing to the extent not to generate a tone.